every night suppers for everyday people

08/16/2011

Legal Sea Foods' Spicy Crabcakes and a Peach Pie

Five years ago the Big Guy made a trip to Boston and as per his habit, brought back the Legal Sea Foods Cookbook to add to our collection. Last night's dinner of spicy crab cakes on a crunchy salad's adapted from the book and it made for a perfect hot summer night celebration. It was even more perfect after a piece of warm from the oven peach pie.

The great thing about making crab cakes for dinner is they really do need some time to mellow in the refrigerator before hitting the fry pan or oven. It means you can get your dinner darn near totally prepped in advance and sit back and relax with an iced tea until it's time to eat.

These particular crab cakes are the Balitmore version and include worcestershire sauce and Old Bay seasoning along with mayo, mustard, and hot pepper sauce. While the recipe calls for crushed saltines, I used panko instead along with an egg to bind them all together and fried them rather than putting them in the oven. Along with tartar sauce, they made for a quick tasty and light dinner which was great because we needed to keep room for the pie.

An old fashioned peach pie, this one's nothing unusual with brown sugar, cornstarch for thickening, lemon juice for a touch of the tart, along with little cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla just because. I was going to add some raspberries just because I love a peach and raspberry pie but we'll save that for later because I'm pretty darn positive that once we get through this pie, we'll be wanting another one.

Course we also WANT to be skinny which means no pie, and heck while we're at it we WANT to win the lottery too. We all know there's a snowball's chance in hell of either thing happening. After all, this is JBug's Kitchen so I gotta' cook and as for the lottery, you have to buy the darn tickets first. Oh well!

In a medium bowl combine mayonnaise, dry mustard, Dijon, hot pepper sauce, Worcestershire, Old Bay and egg and beat well. Add crumbs and mix to combine. Fold in crab. Form crab 6 large cakes and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for minimum 1 hour. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 or fry in a nonstick pan with 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of butter. Serve immediately. Serves 4. Download Spicy Crab Cakes

Old Fashioned Peach Pie (adapted from Purity Cookbook)

7 large peaches, skin removed

Juice of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pastry for a double crust pie

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon heavy cream

Granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400. Cut peaches into wedges and place into a large bowl. Add lemon juice and vanilla and toss to coat. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Pour over peaches and toss to combine. Line a 9 inch pie plate with pastry. Add prepared peaches, top with butter and finish with top crust. Seal edges well and flute. Brush crust with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar. Place on a rack over a large baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower heat to 350 and bake for addition 45 minutes or until juices run clear. Cool before slicing. Download Old Fashioned Peach Pie

June if I was having to request a last meal, this would be it. Just the idea of sitting down to a meal which includes both crab cakes and peach pie, well heck, don't know if I can process that this morning before a couple cups of coffee. cheers! Tom